WALTER J.

BRAND
Direct Dial; (601) 965-1863
E-Mail Address:
wbrand@walkinseager.com

June 13, 2017

VIA FACSIMILE: 601- 420- 3334

Mayor Gary Rhoads
2101 Airport Road
Flowood, MS 39232-0069

Re: Access Road at Dogwood and OakRidge Subdivisions

Dear Mayor Rhoads:

Thank you for providing me with a copy of your letter of June 12 to Melinda McGrath at
MDOT concerning the above matter. Please allow me to submit a brief response on behalf of the
OakRidge Property Owners' Association Board of Directors.

We have no doubt of Your Honor's concern for the safety of OakRidge and Dogwood
residents, and we are appreciative of that fact. We respectfully submit, however, that requiring
the hundreds of residents of OakRidge and Dogwood who exit our neighborhoods on a daily
basis to turn right and then merge across two to three lanes of traffic for the purpose of making a
u-tum to go west on Lakeland Drive will increase, rather than reduce, the prospect of traffic
accidents. In addition to the hazards of multiple lane changes, it is not difficult to envision a
circumstance in which multiple vehicles would be stacked in the turn lane attempting to make the
u-tum, potentially backing up into Lakeland Drive itself.

As someone who utilizes our existing median cross-over for westbound tums on a daily
basis, I can tell you that the traffic lights at Dogwood Festival Boulevard and further east at
Luckney Road are timed such that we have ample opportunities to safely cross at the existing
median cross-over. We submit that our existing cross-over is no less safe than the right turn/u-
turn alternative. We thus hope that you will reconsider your request to MDOT to block our
existing cross-over for that purpose.

Since you have not been privy to our communications with MDOT conceming the
proposed frontage road, please permit me to update you on the status of that matter. As
necessary under the restrictive covenants and bylaws which govern our Association, we
conducted a special meeting of the OakRidge property owners on Sunday, March 26, 2017, for
the purpose of determining our Association's position on making the requested conveyances to
MDOT to permit constmction of the proposed frontage road. The result of this meeting is that
our neighborhood agreed to make the conveyances, subject to a limited number of conditions.